First Things First
I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. John 17:15.
Many professed Christians are well represented by the vine that is trailing upon the ground and entwining its tendrils about the roots and rubbish that lie in its path. To all such the message comes, “Come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord.” 2 Corinthians 6:17. Your tendrils must be severed from everything earthly.... It is impossible for you to unite with those who are corrupt, and still remain pure.10SDA Bible Commentary 6:1102.
O that the young might realize that they may be as precious plants in the Lord's garden.... Let the delicate tendrils of the affections twine about Jesus, to receive nourishment from Him; and instead of creeping upon the earth, turn the face toward the Sun of Righteousness, that you may catch divine rays of light. Day by day grow up into His likeness, and become a partaker of His divine nature, that you may at last be found perfect in the paradise of God....
Rivet the soul to the eternal Rock; for in Christ alone there will be safety.11The Youth's Instructor, August 3, 1893.
A union with Christ by living faith is enduring; every other union must perish.... But this union costs us something.... There must be a painful work of detachment, as well as a work of attachment. Pride, selfishness, vanity, worldliness—sin in all its forms—must be overcome, if we would enter into a union with Christ. The reason why many find the Christian life so deplorably hard, why they are so fickle, so variable, is, they try to attach themselves to Christ without detaching themselves from these cherished idols.12SDA Bible Commentary 5:1143, 1144.
Will we accept the condition laid down in His Word—separation from the world? ... Our consecration to God must be a living principle, interwoven with the life, and leading to self-denial and self-sacrifice. It must underlie all our thoughts, and be the spring of every action. This will elevate us above the world, and separate us from its polluting influence.13The Review and Herald, January 2, 1900.
From The Faith I Live By - Page 221
The Faith I Live By